Our prices are dropping around here (Montana) too, but so far they've only fallen from $3.69 to $3.62. While technically that is progress, it means that I save about a dollar on a tank of gas, and that isn't quite enough to have me weeping for joy.

Here in southern England, regular is $8.24/US gallon. This is considered pretty normal and we still get around.

You all realise, don't you, that, to us in Europe, this thread is equivalent to several western millionaires sitting in the middle of a refugee camp in East Africa discussing how outrageous the price of foie gras and bottle of Bollinger has become... just sayin'

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Nobody says “There are many things that we thought were natural processes, but now know that a god did them.”

Here in southern England, regular is $8.24/US gallon. This is considered pretty normal and we still get around.

You all realise, don't you, that, to us in Europe, this thread is equivalent to several western millionaires sitting in the middle of a refugee camp in East Africa discussing how outrageous the price of foie gras and bottle of Bollinger has become... just sayin'

If gas cost that much in this country, we would grind to an immediate halt. Not that that would be a bad thing, but it would be hard on our morale. And pocketbook. America is just plain bigger than Europe, and the state I live in, Montana, is three times the size of England. A friend of mine just got back from bidding on a job 600 miles from here. And still in Montana. He had to drive over, assess the job, come up with a bid, give it to the owners, and drive back home to work on other jobs in the meantime. His business is not one that can always be done locally (not enough work), and if someone in Homestead, Montana (the place he had to go) wants the type of service my friend provides, there is nowhere local for them to go. So someone has to do some driving. The same homeowner also is getting bids from people who live in Wyoming and Colorado.

Until I more or less stopped working in recent times, I had to travel all over the country, doing very specialized work, both because I couldn't work locally and survive, and homeowners and builders who needed the type of service I provided couldn't get it easily. I've driven east of the Mississippi as many as five times a year doing that work.

The logical thing to do would be to eliminate the type of work I did (which almost happened because of the housing bust) and get rid of the need for such a specialization. However, supply and demand are seldom willing to work with the logicians of the world. When someone with money wants something, others who want money are willing to do it. And yes, if we were paying $8.00 plus a gallon, that would definitely crunch a few wallets and make the work I did (and the similar work my friend above does) much less in demand.

This is not an excuse, it is simply the way it is in this country right now. Many of us have given up on, or at least greatly curtailed, recreational driving. When I was a kid, it was routine to "go for a drive", where Dad and Mom and my brothers and I would just get in the car and go someplace. And while I'm sure there are people who still do that, they are far fewer in number.

Gas should cost more. We should drive less. But that isn't the norm right now. And oil companies would loose a lot of money if they couldn't sell their gasoline because it cost too much.

Oh, and by the way, the main reason your gas is so much more expensive is taxes added to your fuel costs. We have them too, but not nearly as high. I believe your tax surcharge on fuel is around 60%, ours is closer to 15%. Hopefully you get something in return for all those taxes. We don't. Our roads are falling apart because we are told there isn't enough money in the government coffers to pay for all the repairs needed.

Here in southern England, regular is $8.24/US gallon. This is considered pretty normal and we still get around.

You all realise, don't you, that, to us in Europe, this thread is equivalent to several western millionaires sitting in the middle of a refugee camp in East Africa discussing how outrageous the price of foie gras and bottle of Bollinger has become... just sayin'

3.05/gallon when I filled up yesterday here in Oklahoma City, OK. I would take public transport if there was such a thing here, as I did evry day when I lived in the Wash,DC area. Here in OK, there are a few buses downtown, but nothing anywhere else and it is a big ass sprawling state with only 3 million or so people (and more cows).

But yeah, first world problems for all of us sitting in front of computers...

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If xian hell really exists, the stench of the burning billions of us should be a constant, putrid reminder to the handful of heavenward xians how loving their god is. - neopagan

Here in southern England, regular is $8.24/US gallon. This is considered pretty normal and we still get around.

You all realise, don't you, that, to us in Europe, this thread is equivalent to several western millionaires sitting in the middle of a refugee camp in East Africa discussing how outrageous the price of foie gras and bottle of Bollinger has become... just sayin'

Some of us realize it. Our public transportation system is less-developed, but if we had higher taxes on gas maybe would could afford to build a proper public transportation system. I would prefer to ride a train for longer trips, but about the only way to accomplish that is traveling from Washington DC to Boston as the northeast corridor is highly traveled. Elsewhere, traveling by train is not feasible.

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John 14:2 :: In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

VERY slowly, there is a true rail transit system developing in (mostly central) MN. If you live even in the suburbs of the major metro area (Twin Cities) public transportation options get very limited, very quickly - you can't use what isn't available. Unless you live literally in the midst of either city, routine use of public transportation isn't even an option, although first ring suburbs can get to train stations within about 12-15 miles - but by then you could also make it into Minneapolis or St Paul so ridership is slow to grow as well. Hopefully as the stations get built in the outer ring 'burbs, it will improve.

I recently moved to a smaller college town with a good bus system, but again, it only runs inside the city limits and doesn't extend into the half-dozen other communities that encircle it. This is actually impressive for this area, but that's also driven by the huge student population (there are seven colleges here). Eventually, there will be a train that connects the St Cloud area to the Twin Cities, about 75 miles E/SE. That will make a big difference on the freeways - I'm amazed by the sheer number of people who commute that far every day for work or the other direction for school.

I was in DC a couple years ago, and was very impressed with the public transit available there. I wait patiently for my state to catch up... and it IS getting better, just very slowly.

Gas prices dropped to 3.19 - 3.24 in the Cities yesterday, should catch up outstate in a day or two.

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"Tell people that there's an invisible man in the sky that created the entire universe and the majority believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure." ~George Carlin

A guy I work with decided to go the scooter route. Someone on a giant 4 wheel drive ran over him the first week he drove it to work. He has been in a wheelchair or crutches for the past 8 weeks - his wife brings him to work in their SUV now, since he cannot drive yet.

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If xian hell really exists, the stench of the burning billions of us should be a constant, putrid reminder to the handful of heavenward xians how loving their god is. - neopagan

A guy I work with decided to go the scooter route. Someone on a giant 4 wheel drive ran over him the first week he drove it to work. He has been in a wheelchair or crutches for the past 8 weeks - his wife brings him to work in their SUV now, since he cannot drive yet.

The irony on that one is all over the place. On a bright side, at least he did not end up an amputee.

Hmmm... Although I am aware that few in Europe are really conscious of the distances in the USA, this is not really significant. I knew people who commuted 120 miles a day 5 days a week. My advice to them was to move nearer work.

From 2001 to 2009, the average annual number of vehicle miles traveled by young people (16 to 34-year-olds) decreased from 10,300 miles to 7,900 miles per capita—a drop of 23 percent.

This is correlates very well with the (US) National Household Travel Survey at http://nhts.ornl.gov/2009/pub/stt.pdf (at fig 22) that gives the general average mileage per vehicle per year in the USA as 10,088.

The US figure for annual vehicle mileage is thus only a little under 18% higher.

Another argument from the US that I have heard is that there are more people in rural areas: as a percentage, there probably aren't and, in any case, in the UK fuel prices in rural areas, particularly in Scotland and Wales are significantly higher than in urban areas.

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Oh, and by the way, the main reason your gas is so much more expensive is taxes added to your fuel costs. We have them too, but not nearly as high. I believe your tax surcharge on fuel is around 60%, ours is closer to 15%.

The difference lies, as you say, in taxation but the effects are not as clear-cut as they may appear. The tax element is comprised of 'duty' which is unavoidable by everyone and 'tax', which is, to a certain extent, refundable for business purposes.